IMMIGRATION

As a daughter of an immigrant, Julie understands from lived experience the value that immigrants bring to New York City, and just how much our City depends on their economic and cultural contributions. Julie is also acutely aware of the many barriers to access that immigrant communities face.

Julie has centered the rights of immigrant New Yorkers - regardless of immigration status - throughout her public service career, with a focus on consumer protection and expanding the economic and job opportunity pipeline for low-income residents.

As Commissioner of the Department of Consumer Affairs, Julie spearheaded the expansion and implementation of NYC’s Paid Sick Leave and oversaw its citywide, multilingual community outreach efforts. Julie led the efforts to allow IDNYC, the city’s municipal identification, to be used to set up bank accounts. She expanded the agency’s Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE) to reach record numbers of low-income New Yorkers. Julie led the charge to protect nail salon workers who were facing widespread exploitation. 

As the Director of the NYC Census, Julie led the campaign to ensure that every single New Yorker got counted in the 2020 Census. Julie fought the Trump administration’s attempts to undermine immigrants’ trust in the Census, and New York’s response rate outpaced almost every other major American city.

It is absolutely critical to note that over half of the City’s 1 million frontline workers are born in another country and that they reside in communities disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. 

As your council member, Julie will continue to safeguard the rights of all immigrants and will commit to centering immigrant and BIPOC immigrant communities in recovery efforts.